A home network connects various digital home appliances so that the user can always enjoy convenient, safe, and economic life services inside or outside the house. Refrigerators or washing machines called “white home” appliances have been gradually digitalized due to the development of digital signal processing techniques, home appliance operating system techniques, and high speed multimedia communication techniques integrated on the digital home appliances. Furthermore, new information home appliances have been developed, to improve the home network.
Home networks can take many forms and can be classified as follows, by types of services they provide: a data network, an entertainment network, and a living network. The data network connects computers and peripherals, and typically provides Internet service. The entertainment network connects AN (audio/video) devices, such as televisions, audio equipment, etc. The living network connects and controls home appliances, such as an electric oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, laundry washer, freezer, lights, etc. In the past, systems have been invented for recording diagnostic and statistical information associated with household appliances. This information is recorded and can be used by a service person to monitor functionality and the wear status of such appliances. An example of such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,291, which is incorporated herein by reference. Another example of such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,336,192, which is also incorporated herein by reference.
A conventional home network system includes a master device which is an electric device for controlling an operation of the other electric devices or monitoring a status thereof, and a slave device which is an electric device having a function of responding to the request of the master device and a function of notifying a status change according to characteristics of the electric devices or other factors. Exemplary electric devices include home appliances for the living network service, such as a washing machine and a refrigerator, home appliances for the data network service and the entertainment network service, and products such as a gas valve control device, an automatic door device and an electric lamp.
However, the conventional arts do not suggest a general communication standard for providing functions of controlling and monitoring electric devices in a home network system. Also, a network protocol in the conventional art home network system does not suggest an effective method for receiving and transmitting a packet. However, U.S. patent application no. 2008/0164980, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,782,781, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a control protocol that can be used to communicate among the various electric appliances associated with the data network, the entertainment network, and the living network.
Although significant strides have been made to fully automatic the home network, the foregoing prior art systems are not user friendly, and the art remains in a state of infancy. Better, more intelligent, monitoring systems and systems for taking automatic action, perhaps based on user preferences, are needed.